


The Mirror

by redeem147



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-09
Updated: 2011-08-09
Packaged: 2017-10-22 11:00:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/237358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redeem147/pseuds/redeem147
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Buffy takes a look at herself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Mirror

When she was young, she heard you should always brush your hair with one hundred strokes before you went to bed. She had been far too impatient to try it, even once, but she did like to give it a good brushing every night. There was now considerably less hair to brush, but she worked it through anyway, bringing out the shine. Dark streaks, now, contrasting with the blonde. Maybe she should just dye it darker, no trace of Goldilocks. He’d love it anyway, blonde or black. She could make it purple and he wouldn’t care. He hadn’t even mentioned the cut. Just ran his fingers though it anyway.

 

He loved her. She knew it. Why was that? What was so special about her? She studied her reflection; nose bigger than she’d choose, face growing thinner than she’d remembered. Maybe it was her eyes. She thought they were her best feature. Maybe it was her lips. Maybe it wasn’t anything. Maybe he was just obsessed for no good reason. Maybe it wasn’t her face at all. She could mutilate it with a razor and he wouldn’t stop loving it.

 

He couldn’t do this. Couldn’t see his own reflection. Could he see himself in her eyes? What did he see? Revulsion? Need? Hatred? Love? No, not the last. Please God, not the last. She didn’t want to talk to him. Hit him, yes. Screw him, forever. But not talk. She feared the words coming from her mouth in a moment of weakness. “Leave me alone,” “I hate you,” “I love you.” The last were the ones she could never take back. He would hold on to them the way he held on to her, with everything in him.

 

She looked into her own eyes, stared deeply. She saw him. Always. A tear ran down her cheek and she wiped it away. She put her brush on the dresser, turned the lights off in her room, climbed into her bed and pulled the covers over her head.


End file.
